When the Nashville Predators lost all-world goalie Pekka Rinne to injury last month, a lot of observers thought they were in for a bit of a slide.

They were kinda right. The first place Preds have gone 4-4 with Carter Hutton between the pipes, including back-to-back losses to Central Division rivals St. Louis and Colorado last week in which he gave up a combined seven goals.

However, in the last two games Hutton has come up huge for Nashville. He turned away all 21 shots in a 4-0 win over Pittsburgh on Sunday for his second career shutout. And last night, although he gave up three tallies to the lethargic Maple Leafs, he also made a mind-blowing backhanded stick save with just under three minutes to go in the game. That kept the score 4-3 and helped the Preds hang on for a win.

Seriously, check out this Carter Hutton save:

The poor Leafs just cannot catch a break. That’s got to be the save of the year right there.

Carter Hutton won’t be getting a lot of starts once Rinne returns from the disabled list. But he has made a couple of highlight reel saves this year. So at least there’s that.